Residents in Bordentown Township, Florence and Chesterfield will vote on fire district budgets and projects for 2004.
By: Eve Collins and Scott Morgan
With a little over a week to go before the elections, local fire officials are readying to ask voters to support their districts’ budgets and projects for 2004.
Voting day for all fire area districts is Feb. 21. Polls are open from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m.
BORDENTOWN
TOWNSHIP
The total proposed budget for Fire District 1 is $437,666. If approved, it would raise the local fire tax rate by 1.8 cents to 20.8 cents per $100 of assessed property value.
The owner of a home at the township average of $132,000 would pay $274 this year in fire taxes if the budget passes.
There are two seats open this year on the five-member Board of Fire Commissioners. Tim Kinsley and John D. Kinsley Jr. have filed for re-election to the board. They will run unopposed for the three-year seats. Voting in District 1 is held at the Mission Firehouse on Groveville Road.
In District 2, there are two three-year seats open on the Board of Fire Commissioners. Frank Nucera and Richard Nappa, both incumbents, and Richard Sanders, a newcomer, all have registered to run for those seats.
The total proposed budget for District 2 is $1,213,166. If approved, it would raised the fire tax rate by 1.9 cents, to 22 cents per $100 of assessed property value. The owner of a $132,000 home would pay $290 if the budget is approved. Voting in District 2 is held at the Derby Firehouse on Route 528.
CHESTERFIELD
In District 1, which encompasses Crosswicks and part of Hamilton Township, Fire Commission Treasurer Raymond Demeter is running unopposed for a fifth three-year term.
Voters will be asked to support the district’s $194,540 budget, of which $115,690 would be raised through taxes, said District Secretary Dana Boyadjian. Under the proposed budget, the district maintains its tax rate of 11 cents per $100 of assessed property value, which means the owner of the average $210,000 home would continue to pay $231 in fire taxes.
Mr. Boyadjian said the district is able to maintain the tax rate because of some new ratables (chiefly the newly bought residential lots under construction in the township’s receiving district) and the incorporation of $62,000 in surplus.
District 1 elections will be held at Union Fire Company No. 1, 18 New St., Crosswicks.
In District 2, Fire Commissioner Jack Homa will run unopposed for a fifth three-year term.
Voters will decide the fate of the district’s $151,000 budget, of which $128,029 is to be raised through taxation. Mr. Homa said the district’s tax rate of 9 cents per $100 of assessed property value remains stable, mainly due to increased residential ratable revenue.
Elections will be held at the Chesterfield Fire Company, Route 528 (Bordentown-Chesterfield Road).
FLORENCE
Fire officials are asking voters to allow the district to pay for its planned Cedar Lane station through bonding.
In October, voters approved $4.2 million to buy a 4.4-acre plot of land and build a new centralized fire station there. With the money already approved, district officials need to ask the public how to spend it.
Chief Edward Kensler said officials originally planned to pay for the project through a lease-purchase agreement, but found that going to bond could save $1 million over 30 years. In order for the district to be able to bond, however, voters would need to vote yes on the question.
The new station will be built, regardless of the election’s outcome, Chief Kensler said, though project financing through lease-purchase would cost more over its 30-year life, he said. Should voters shoot down the bond, he said, taxes would likely go up sometime over the next four years.
The district’s proposed budget is $1.15 million, of which $823,725 would be raised through taxation. District taxes will not increase, Chief Kensler said, thanks to a five-year plan designed to stabilize the tax rate at 15.75 cents per every $100 of assessed property value, the chief said. The owner of a township-average $112,000 home, therefore, will continue to pay $176.40 in fire taxes.
Also helping to stabilize the tax rate, he said, is the presence of new ratables which have generated another $2 million in tax revenue since last year.
C. Lester Smith, a 20-year member of the Fire Commission, is running unopposed, for his seventh three-year term.
Elections will be held at Florence Volunteer Fire Company No. 2, 501 E. Delaware Ave.